I technically made it through the first two episodes, but I basically stopped watching after about halfway through the "second" episode. The series might make it if Moore has a very well thought out plan, but if history is any judge, he doesn't. I tried, but it's not for me.

There have probably been hundred or thousands of shows that were well thought out, classically outlined and meticulously planned that still sucked big time. I can't say that I loved the direction BSG went in its last season or two but I don't care if he had planned it all along or made it up as the season progressed. It certainly won't stop me from watching something else he creates that seems interesting.

I thought it was a pretty good horror/thriller. Sort of like The Thing meets Alien and The Andromeda Strain. There's enough mystery and tension to keep you guessing. It will be interesting to see where the storyline goes, but I can't see an entire series devoted to the Arctic location. Unless they do something to expand the venue outside of the current setting I don't see this as much more than a long mini-series. Whatever happens, I'm in for the long haul.

... but I don't care if he had planned it all along or made it up as the season progressed. It certainly won't stop me from watching something else he creates that seems interesting.....

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Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

The bad part is that I will give this show a go also, but BSG writing sucked big time, period. Outside of the writing, there were some good things. But, I will only watch a show so long with bad writing.

There have probably been hundred or thousands of shows that were well thought out, classically outlined and meticulously planned that still sucked big time. I can't say that I loved the direction BSG went in its last season or two but I don't care if he had planned it all along or made it up as the season progressed. It certainly won't stop me from watching something else he creates that seems interesting.

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The thing that bothered me about BG wasn't that it wasn't planned out. It is that is was designed from the ground up to be planned out...and then wasn't.

You don't have "They Have A Plan" as your tagline and not have a clue what their plan is. You don't build a show around the mystery of who the remaining Spylons are and then just assign them at random after years of character development. There are good shows that are planned out and bad ones; there are good shows that aren't planned out and bad ones. Good shows are (among other things) one that know what kind they should be.

The thing that bothered me about BG wasn't that it wasn't planned out. It is that is was designed from the ground up to be planned out...and then wasn't.

You don't have "They Have A Plan" as your tagline and not have a clue what their plan is. You don't build a show around the mystery of who the remaining Spylons are and then just assign them at random after years of character development. There are good shows that are planned out and bad ones; there are good shows that aren't planned out and bad ones. Good shows are (among other things) one that know what kind they should be.

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That is probably true but why should that result in a binary judgement against his new show? My guess is that he was bashed so much for winging the end of BSG that he's in "I better not do that again!" mode for Helix. I allow for stinker albums from musicians, stinker books from authors and stinker movies from directors. I don't have a problem granting Moore a clean slate for Helix.

Moore rubbed me the wrong way not only by not understanding that a show about They Have A Plan should have a plan, but by his utter contempt for people who DID understand that. He lost additional points by his sheer contempt for people who think that science might matter in science fiction. And finally, if you're going to be a "winging it" kind of showrunner (and again, that can be done quite well), you still have to do it well. And Moore seems to suck at it.

All that said, I'm certainly willing to give Helix a try, and so far it has not let me down.

I guess I should have read more of what it was about. All I knew was "CDC medical drama" but I guess the fact that it was on Syfy should have clued me in that it wasn't going to be "realistic" CDC medical drama like Medical Investigation.

I thought it was ok... I'll give it a few more eps. These doctors sure do some dumb stuff though.

I thought it was ok... I'll give it a few more eps. These doctors sure do some dumb stuff though.

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I'll spoilerize this but it doesn't reveal anything that isn't in the first two episodes.

I was surprised and kept wondering why the CDC team had no method of communicating to each other. The vet woman discovered a secret locked lab, a violent, supposedly non-existent monkey and decided to perform an autopsy on it without telling the CDC guy in charge.

I'll spoilerize this but it doesn't reveal anything that isn't in the first two episodes.

I was surprised and kept wondering why the CDC team had no method of communicating to each other. The vet woman discovered a secret locked lab, a violent, supposedly non-existent monkey and decided to perform an autopsy on it without telling the CDC guy in charge.

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It is all part of the disease that everyone on TV has:

They cannot tell anything to anyone else, at any time. The more critical the information, the more likely that it will not be passed on to others, for no good reason. In the old days, they used the excuse of no easy communications (before cell phones were common). But nowadays, it is just moronic, and yet, quite common.

They cannot tell anything to anyone else, at any time. The more critical the information, the more likely that it will not be passed on to others, for no good reason. In the old days, they used the excuse of no easy communications (before cell phones were common). But nowadays, it is just moronic, and yet, quite common.

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I know Lost wasn't the first show to do it but it was the first show to infuriate me by doing it.

My wife and I watched the first episode. Stylistically, it is somewhere between a Dr. Who episode and a horrible syfy freak of the week movie. The visual effects were TERRIBLE. They should never show any outside shots ever again. Ever. Never. They were unbelievably terrible and fake. As bad or worse than the average SyFy movie. Considering BSG had fairly good visual effects, I can only assume that the budget or crew are much different here.

That aside, we enjoyed the first episode a fair amount. Campbell is super charismatic and it is very hard not to enjoy any scene he's in because of that.

Hollywood has a tendency to ignore the facts in lieu of dramatic presentation. Most movies and TV shows would probably bore most of us to tears if they stuck with reality.

For instance, is there ever a time when a cop doesn't enter a dark room using only a flashlight instead of simply turning on the lights? They rarely check to see if the lights work and automatically pull out their flashlight along with their gun.